A Matter of Public Concern: Eliminating the Public Concern Test to Safeguard <i>New York Times Co. v. Sullivan<i>

In recent years, Justices Thomas and Gorsuch have expressed a strong interest in reconsidering, and perhaps overruling, the landmark defamation decision, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. The Court’s defamation jurisprudence has undergone many changes since the landmark case was decided, namely, the Court has since adopted a test known as the “public concern” test. Though adopted by only a plurality of the Court, the “public concern” test has been integrated into the defamation decisions of lower federal courts and state courts. This comment encourages the Court to abandon any push toward the wholesale abandonment of Sullivan and, instead, advocates for an abandonment of the “public concern” test on the basis that such a test cannot be defined with sufficient clarity and does little to honor the underpinnings of the Court’s decision in Sullivan.